Employee Relations & Internal Communications's archives

When we talk with employee communicators about conferences, they often say they’re frustrated with the content. It’s too basic, they say, or it’s too focused on big-budget tactics, or doesn’t translate to the not-for-profit world. As difficult as it is to balance these needs, the PRSA Employee Communication Section conference, Connect ’14, has done so.

First of all, it features some of the best employee communication minds in the business: people like Maril MacDonald, a true pioneer in strategic internal communications as founder of Gagen MacDonald; Linda Dulye of Dulye & Co., whose work on improving managerial communication has been vital; and Tyler Durham, who runs the change practice for Ketchum and helps companies and leaders grow and unleash the potential of their employees and brands. MacDonald, Dulye and Durham are our keynoters this year, as Connect comes to the Windy City, Chicago, May 20–21, 2014, at Loyola University of Chicago’s Water Tower Campus. That’s right in the heart of the Magnificent Mile, close to world-class shopping, dining and entertainment.

This is a preview of Connect ’14 is the Employee Communications Conference for You. Read the full post

To ensure the delivery on Boehringer Ingelheim’s promise of ‘More Health’ to the patient communities we serve, we are continually examining and innovating around how to engage employees in responding to, and leading, the change we face.

Change is our reality: the increasing pace of technological innovation, regulatory changes, globalization, shifting demographics; the whirling maelstrom of global Life that we find ourselves operating within — none of which pauses for us to catch up.

Couple this with the second challenge: Engaging our talent, ensuring productivity, improving margins and managing turnover by supporting acceptable levels of employee engagement. Many other issues vie for strategic attention; however these two challenges have far-reaching implications for the future success of any organization.

Beginning in 2010, we constructed a series of pilots to engage employees in leading change. The results of these pilots were encouraging and have culminated in the creation of a new team within Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI). The central thesis of this Organizational Engagement (OE) group, operational since February 2013, is woven from our understanding of the results of our pilots and tied to a theoretical foundation painted from a diverse set of sources and inspirations: enterprise social media, social entrepreneurship and the theory of urban planning.

The OE approach involves surfacing issues that span multiple functions through questions, discussion and dialogue. We subsequently empower passionate people from across our company to work together to affect positive change. Specifically, project teams made up of volunteers or nominated subject-matter experts (SMEs) devote their time to high priority organizational problems. These project teams form an agile network-like structure that forms, expands, contracts and disbands based on the priorities of the business and the demands of their projects. A portfolio of these projects is centrally managed by a cross-functional OE Core Team, which appropriately sets conditions to maximize the likelihood of project success.

The importance of internal networks — formal and informal.We promote our messages actively and often through all channels — both offline and online. Our creation of a network-like structure to organize this work matches the underlying pattern of the organization and provides a mechanism for organizational learning at scale.

The role of leadership in supporting nascent change.Our senior leaders provide sponsorship for OE projects, ranging from active “boots on the ground” through to figurehead roles. Our president and CEO has taken to routinely updating the organization on the availability of OE projects as business relevant cross-functional collaboration opportunities, and we have statistically robust data that links this messaging to robust employee awareness of this work.

How to turn latent organizational energy into strategically important “wins.”Like most organizations, we run Engagement Surveys wherein the pulse of the organization is captured through questions. A persistent opportunity for improvement remains Development — and a desire to do more. Much of our recent OE work has been focused on validating this theme and then curating conditions wherein all employees have opportunities to participate — and subsequently “Develop.” This is not done in isolation, but in collaboration with all of the other opportunities afforded our colleagues through more traditional developmental assignments.

The business results we have realized are worthwhile, but they do not demonstrate OE’s impact on the system in terms of organizational capacity for change and engagement; employees’ experiences do. Below is one story of significant change that illustrates the power of turning latent organizational energy into a strategically important “win.”

Like it or not, today’s employee communication — in all of its glittering technological glory — is quickly losing its mojo. Finding it again will take more than another cool digital download.

There was a time when most organizations and their leaders were afforded a certain level of respect and trust, whether or not they earned it. Employees listened to — and usually believed and did — what they were told. Not anymore. Today, credibility is finicky and fleeting. While employees may be hesitant to publicly proclaim their skepticism about their organization and its leadership, many are thinking it. And, if it hasn’t already affected their performance, it soon will.

This decline in respect, authority and trust can, in many ways, be traced to several emerging global, organizational, individual and — perhaps ironically — technological megatrends that are fundamentally altering the relationship between leaders and followers.

These megatrends, which surfaced in Hay Group’s recent “Leadership 2030” research report, include accelerating globalization, climate change, individualization, shifting demographics, an emerging digital lifestyle and the convergence of technology. Together, they create a formidable challenge for how we connect and communicate with employees.

This is a preview of Why Should I Listen To You? How Global Trends Are Challenging Traditional Employee Communication. Read the full post

There are some warning signs for team leaders to watch out for when it comes to high stress on a team. When stress hits the hot button, there is a natural tendency for all of us to revert to behavior we learned in our original organization, the family; things we learned for security and survival. These behaviors come to work with us in unique and powerful ways when we are tense and feel overwhelmed. So, if your teammate is behaving like a baby, you’re right. And if you are responding like a thumb-sucking toddler, you are!

In “Conflict Resolution Simplified,” I’ll give you a new perspective on warning signs to watch out for on your team, and why some of these “early warning signs” do come to work with you, even if you didn’t want them to.

Let me share a story.

This is a preview of What Team Leaders Need to know About Stress and Conflict. Read the full post

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